


New Age

by Asukachan07



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: But they do have a few POVs throughout the chapters, Gen, My First Fanfic, Not related to the SGA Series: Legacy, POV Third Person, Post-Canon, SGA: Ten Years Later, Sheppard and co aren't the main characters, There could be some romance but don't count on it, There's a plot but don't ask me what it is, Todd and Kenny are part of the plot, here goes nothing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-10-10 23:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17435360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asukachan07/pseuds/Asukachan07
Summary: “You killed a wraith queen with a knife?!” Rick exclaimed, almost dropping the tablet.“I dealt her the fatal blow, she was already half-dead,” the woman corrected with a shrug.“You know that she could’ve fed on you and restored her lost half-life, right?” the engineer reminded her.“I cut through her feeding organ first to be sure,” she replied with a barely concealed eye roll. “Is it done?”Right on cue, the notification of the database download chimed up.Rick’s teammate gently but firmly took the tablet away from him, smiling her thanks before fast walking away as if she was embarrassed by the topic she had accidentally brought up.There was nothing wrong with bragging a bit about killing one of the toughest aliens known to humanity, yet here she was shrugging it off like it was nothing.Women.OrAtlantis returns to Pegasus to get rid of the Wraiths once and for all, and to strengthen its diplomatic relations with the humans of Pegasus.
They should’ve seen the new Bad Guys coming.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> It's been 10 years since the last episode of SGA aired, and I thought that now would be the best time to contribute to the fandom.
> 
> All characters belong to the creators of Stargate Atlantis, even my OCs are just discount versions of others canon characters. 
> 
> Un-beta'd, all mistakes are my own. Constructive feedback will be greatly appreciated. More notes at the end of the chapter :)

“Mckay!” Colonel John Sheppard shouted as he entered the ZPM room.

 

As expected, Rodney was with Zelenka, both bent over the zero point modules hub and tapping rapidly across the screens of their tablets.

 

“As I said earlier,” the Chief Science Officer said without lifting his head from his tablet, “this is a very thorough diagnosis of the power output, and it will take at least four hours to complete. We’re just about done setting all the scanning parameters.”

 

“Well, get that done quickly and come over the conference room for Dr. Ntanu’s briefing on the diplomatic agenda,” the colonel ordered as he stood tall across the room and crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing the three power sources glowing in their sockets.

 

They had three ZPMs to power Atlantis now, finally. Their first use of the full power of the Ancients’ spaceship had been rushed in their battle against the Super Hive, and John hadn’t even been in the city to witness the full potential of the three power sources. For once, he was looking forward to hearing and reading McKay’s report on the functions newly available to them now that they had the complete set of ZPMs.

 

“Diplomatic…What? Already?” McKay asked, looking just as surprised as Sheppard had been when both Woolsey and Ntanu had announced that they were ready to debrief the senior staff. At the IOA's request - read: order - the newly appointed diplomat had poured over mission reports to understand the status of Atlantis in Pegasus, and she had figured out ways to strengthen it upon their return to the galaxy.

 

“Apparently Dr. Ntanu has a semi-photographic memory,” the airman explained with the shrug of one shoulder.

 

“That’s how she was able to learn Ancient so fast,” Rodney claimed with a snap of his fingers. “So, not a true genius, then. She just has a slight advantage over the average Joe. Jane, whatever.”

 

John rolled his eyes, totally expecting the underhanded comment. McKay was definitely jealous over the fact that their new recruit, Dr. Amara Ntanu, was able to read Ancient texts without using his translation program. She had still needed the subcutaneous translation chip like the other off-world authorized personnel, since many of the trade languages spoken across Pegasus were dialects of Ancient that Ntanu didn’t know. For his part, John thought that the IOA could’ve chosen worse to fulfill the newly created role of Atlantis Chief Diplomatic Officer.

 

“All set,” Rodney announced as twin beeps resonated from his and Radek’s tablets. “Hopefully the meeting doesn’t take the full four hours, I’d really like to check some of those scans live.”

 

“I’m sure Woolsey will let you take breaks to check them out in the unfortunate event we do have to Ntanu talk for that long,” John offered before nodding goodbye to Zelenka, who didn’t bother getting offended that Rodney didn’t trust _him_ to monitor the diagnosis alone.

 

* * *

 

“I’ll try to keep this quick,” Amara said as a way of greeting the six other executive members of Atlantis. “An hour at most, I know you are all very busy in the few hours before the takeoff.”

 

She was giving herself half an hour to cover the most pressing diplomatic missions the intergalactic expedition needed to get underway, and hopefully less than fifteen additional minutes to cover the minor missions even the non-diplomatic AR teams could accomplish. She anticipated ten minutes of questions and answers, and from what she knew about her new colleagues, at least five effective minutes of interruption. Mostly from Richard and Dr. McKay.

 

“One hour,” Richard said, his surprise painted all over his face. As a fellow diplomat he had probably expected more time spent on such a crucial meeting, but unlike him Amara was a field diplomat. She had learned to crunch her briefings to match the short attention span of the average blue helmet.

 

“You believe that you can go over all the problems of the galaxy in less than an hour?” Teyla Emmagan asked, clearly disapproving.

 

“I believe I can go over all of Atlantis’ negotiation strategies in less than an hour,” Amara corrected in what she hoped was a friendly tone.

 

She took the tilted nod she received from the Athosian as a good sign.

 

Of all the people present in the room, Richard and Teyla were the ones she hoped to impress most, as they had been the most qualified if unofficial diplomatic officers in the past. Now they were officially part of the Atlantis branch of the Stargate Program Diplomatic Cooperative, which Stargate Command and the IOA had created a few weeks ago, with the passionate input of Dr. Daniel Jackson.

 

Ronon Dex, who seemed to think that one hour was still too much time spent sitting on a chair, was also part of the diplomatic group by default, as he was a Pegasus local.

 

“I recommend we break down this meeting into three parts,” Ntanu started right away before anyone else could object to her agenda. “First we’ll discuss the current state of affairs with the most technologically advanced human groups of Pegasus, namely the Genii and the Travelers; then we’ll tackle what I think is our most challenging mission, getting the galaxy rid of the threat that the Wraiths represent; finally I’d like for us to go over negotiation strategies that will get us a seat on the Council of the Coalition of Planets.”

 

“Ambitious,” Colonel Sheppard commented with an approving nod. “Would you mind going over the Wraith problem first, though? We’ll have to talk to Todd before we release him when we get back, and he’s a piece of work. I still can’t believe the IOA didn’t let us just execute him.”

 

“The main reason for their decision is that we still don’t know how many more Wraiths we should be prepared to face,” Amara asserted as she shuffled her note cards to follow the colonel’s suggestion.

 

She had read a report about the Genii detecting sixty hive ships in the galaxy, but considering that they had been interpreting data from Wraith equipment, she didn’t dare take that piece of information as absolute truth.

 

She saw Woolsey nod in confirmation, and internally crossed her fingers that the civilian leader of Atlantis wouldn’t also interrupt her often during this meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally did it. I had this prologue and three other chapters collecting dust on a desktop. Chapters 2 and 3 will be uploading by the end of the month, but I don't have a set schedule for uploading the other chapters.
> 
> As mentioned above, feedback is greatly appreciated!


	2. Alliance -5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd expected to negotiate his freedom with Colonel Sheppard, but he has to make due with the newbies of Atlantis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Todd's POV, which I hope is clear in the chapter. In TV canon, Wraiths don't have names, so Todd is just "he" here.
> 
> Unbeta'd, all mistakes are my own, including the crazy formatting. Hoping to get it fixed soon.
> 
> Feedback appreciated :)

 

“And who might you be?” he asked as his eyes sized up the unfamiliar faces that had entered the room where they had transferred him after keeping him in the brig.

 

He had expected John Sheppard or Richard Woolsey to inform him on their decision concerning his freedom, and was mildly irritated to have to deal with these four instead.

 

The group consisted of two males and two females, one of each dressed in the black military uniform favored by John Sheppard, and both as heavily armed as the two guards who were constantly watching him.

 

The other two humans appeared to be civilians, as they had no guns on them, and wore dark jackets with colored stripes that he knew designated their area of expertise. The male had blue stripes lining his jacket, which made him a scientist like Rodney McKay, further hinted by the tablet he held under his arm. The other female’s jacket was line with dark red like Richard Woolsey, which made her the likely leader of the team. She held a pile of paper files in her arm

 

She was of average height for her kind, dark skin and eyes, and even darker hair. She appeared to be shortly past the quarter of the human natural lifespan, yet something about her hinted at wisdom acquired with many more years of experience.

 

As she approached the chair opposite his, he detected the knives concealed under the female’s jacket sleeves and left boot. Not a soldier, but not without defense either.

 

“Hello,” she greeted as she dropped the files and drew out the chair, which led to a collective spike in the heart rate of the other humans in the room.

 

Interestingly, she herself remained calm, though her heartbeat was slightly higher than a few moments before.

 

“We’re AR-11,” she informed him as she extended a hand toward her teammates behind her. “Major Chris Harrison and Lieutenant Min Yeon Park” she introduced as she pointed at the two military members without looking back, “Dr. Rick Valdes, biotech” she added and the scientist male actually waved before tapping on his tablet.

“I’m Dr. Amara Ntanu, Chief Diplomatic Officer. I’m Atlantis spokesperson when neither Mr. Woolsey nor Colonel Sheppard are available.”

“I see,” he replied calmly.

“Oh, I really need to know if you have a title we can address you with,” she said as she opened one of the files. “I’m having trouble with the mundane name _Todd_.”

“I am the First Commander of my fleet,” he conceded while suppressing a mocking huff.

 

He had never expected to ever be named by humans, even less to agree to respond to the silly name. ‘First Commander’ was the name the few human worshippers he had interacted with over millennia knew him as.

 

“You _were_ the first commander of your fleet,” Chris Harrison dared correct with a shrug. “According to Colonel Sheppard, there is no way that you’ll have anyone following you after that that debacle with your underling.”

“Major,” Amara Ntanu said with disapproval, turning halfway to stare at her teammate.

“It is true that one occurrence of insubordination would normally lead to others among my kind,” he admitted to get the humans’ full attention. “However, seeing that I have seen to the utter destruction of those who betrayed me, there is no worry to have over my return as the leader of my fleet.”

 

Silence settled into the room for a moment as the information sunk into the slower minds of the humans, but then Amara Ntanu let a smile slowly grow on her face.

 

“Then a formal renewal of our alliance is beneficial, isn’t it, First Commander?” Amara Ntanu proposed with a smile, although for the first time she displayed discreet signs of nervousness. He could hear her breathing a bit faster.

“The possibility of a new alliance with natural enemies highly depends upon the conditions it is established upon,” he reminded.

“Well, for starters, we’re letting you live,” the diplomat announced cheerfully. “I think that’s generous on our part, considering that your troops almost invaded our planet.

“I am certain that you are letting me live on conditions I will not enjoy fulfilling,” he replied.

“Conditions that are beneficial for both our sides,” Ntanu assured as she opened another file and spread it on her side of the table. “In exchange for helping you grow your fleet, you’ll make all of your…people take the new version of the gene therapy.”

“It’s not a new version, actually,” Rick Valdes corrected as he leaned over the table and gingerly dropped the tablet next to him. The screen was displaying two formulas he was familiar with.

 

He let his gaze linger on the scientist, who fidgeted before taking a step back and waving at the tablet.

 

“Dr. Keller will give you more details when you meet her next, but she validated my idea to work with the original formula,” Valdes continued. “The one Michael used on himself. I theorized that Wraiths must first be injected with the retrovirus to become human, then returned to being Wraiths before taking the gene therapy. I’m confident that the slight genomic change Michael’s DNA went through was key to his successful therapy. Without humanizing wraith cells so to speak, the drug will lead to the genetic instabilities you and your crew experienced.”

 

He swiped at the screen, glancing at the handwritten schematics and computer-generated calculations that estimated a 85% rate of success of proper absorption and integration of the drug’s active compound into the cell nucleus.

 

The idea of ‘humanizing’ the cells had merit. He and his scientists had not been able to improve the rate of absorption, and completely overlooked the possibility of the drug causing irreversible genomic damage to dividing cells. Even Jennifer Keller, who was familiar with the unknown condition – she had called it ‘cancer’ – had not known how to eliminate it or prevent its occurrence after administering the drug.

“And what guarantee do I have that you will not keep me and my troops human?” he asked flatly.

 

He knew the story of the abomination that Atlantis called ‘Michael.’ A formerly high-ranked male turned human by John Sheppard’s people, only to escape their custody and turn back into…A hybrid.

 

Among the intelligence he had gathered while looking for Teyla Emmagan, one recurring comment on him was the stench that followed him. He was wraith no more, yet nowhere near being human. And when Atlantis had caught him the first time, they had turned him back into a human.

 

“First, we’re asking that you and a few of your higher ranked officers not undergo the therapy right away,” Dr. Ntanu suggested as she tilted her head toward Valdes.

“Administering the treatment in increments will allow us to make any modification necessary for its success,” the scientist confirmed with a rushed tap on his tablet, bringing forth a demographic assessment. “The numbers will need to be adjusted to those of your fleet, obviously, but we need to convert only ten percent of each hive at a time. I’m not a geneticist so Dr. Keller will be the one to provide a theoretical timeline.”

“Starting the day you successfully return to your fleet, that is,” Amara Ntanu reminded. “Which I’m not convinced will be as easy as you’re letting on.”

“And what would you know about commanding a Wraith fleet, Amara Ntanu?”

 

The female stared at him for a few heartbeats before sighing loudly and leaning back in her chair, her arms extended in front of her.

 

“I’m sure I have much to learn about your culture,” she admitted with a shrug. “However, I’m good at getting the big picture of hierarchical civilizations like yours. My field of expertise is in group psychology and cultural anthropology - the study of human cultures. Although there’s no doubt that biologically, wraiths and humans are very different, from what I’ve read about your society, your kind isn’t very enigmatic.”

 

He instinctively drew closer to the woman to remind her of her place with a little intimidation, and while she did climb out of her chair in a clatter, the four soldiers stepped up to him, weapons aimed at his head.

 

“What the hell!” Rick Valdes exclaimed, a hand on his turbulent heart. He had stepped back even further from the table than Ntanu, which pleased him immensely.

 

Interestingly, Amara Ntanu’s heart rate was the first to stabilize, not even a minute after her retreat. She crouched to pick up the few pieces of paper she had scattered, and drew tall before getting back in her seat.

 

“Keep your distance, Ma’am,” one of the unnamed guards warned.

“It’s alright, really,” the diplomat said as she tapped the paper sheet together on the table to realign them. “It’s not like he could actually use his hands.”

 

Indeed, his wrists were still uncomfortably bound and weighed down by the restraints Atlantis had devised specifically for his kind. He still had full functions of his legs, and could eliminate half of the humans present with his speed alone, but such action would be suicidal.

 

“For your information, I have consulted Teyla Emmagan on the subject,” Amara Ntanu informed him. “She was adamant that only a queen, a powerful and assertive one at that, could unite the large fleet you usurped with her help. One of the only two ways I can imagine you regaining influence would be to have her return with you, and both Colonel Sheppard and Mr. Woolsey vetoed against that course of action.”

 

Indeed, he had planned on requesting the assistance of the wraithkin to take back his fleet. He had thought himself capable of swaying the opinions of the Atlantis leaders to reach his goal.

 

“And what other way have you come up with?” he asked the human.

 

The woman shuffled her files yet again, a smile lifting a corner of her mouth.

 

He would allow her the short victory, and if her plan sounded feasible, he would remember to flatter her on her ingenuity.

 

None of these humans understood him better than John Sheppard, but he had clearly lost the little respect the colonel had held for him.

 

It was a temporary step back only. With the help of this chief diplomatic officer, he would have many opportunities to regain the trust of his former jail mate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting chapter 1 today too because the prologue was too short. The next chapters will be about the combined lengths of the prologue and chapter 1.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	3. Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jana’s planet hasn’t been culled for centuries, yet there are still people like her who still believe in the return of the true gods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found the idea of wraith worshippers interesting in canon, and it's a shame that they weren't given more screen time. Here's some background info on one of them, but she's not a recurring character.

Jana recited a prayer as she was being bound to the pole jutting out of the pyre, feeling an odd sense of peace at being able to say the words out loud without fearing being heard by nonbelievers. She had nothing more to lose.

Her whole life, the young woman had lived in fear of being persecuted for her faith.

Like all the members of her family, Jana was among the few who still worshipped the Wraiths on Xia, a planet that had been untouched by the celestial beings for hundreds of years, thanks to the discovery of the false gods’ altar a few generations ago.

According to rumors, the altar was truly a chair, located on the sacred grounds forbidden to most Xians. Only the priests of the false faith could sit on the chair and call forth the angels of war that destroyed the celestial vessels of the Wraiths.

Before the discovery of the altar, most Xians had worshipped the Wraiths, as lack of faith was a sin punishable by death. Jana had been told graphic stories of heretics’ souls being removed from their bodies, a painful and lethal sentence executed by the gods themselves. 

During that era, Jana’s family had been privileged for having many members elected as holy leaders. Now, almost three hundred years after the rise of the new faith, her faith was banned and its practitioners hunted down.

Five years ago, the priests of the false faith had announced that their gods had stopped talking to them. After days of prayers, one of them had supposedly received a message from the false gods: they were angered that some Xians still worshipped the Wraiths, and demanded their blood in sacrifice. 

Xia had a long history of pacifism, as people of both faiths believed that only the gods had the right to take away the lives they had given them. Rebellion factions made of people from both faiths had risen in opposition to the new king’s decision to execute Wraith worshippers at the request of the false priests.

However, when the angels of the false gods had appeared in the sky after Jana’s own aunt, Meri, had been burned publicly at the edge of the sacred grounds, the people had approved the killing of the true believers. 

Ever since, Jana had lived in the increased terror of being identified as a Wraith worshipper.

Whereas her family had lived in the villages surrounding the sacred grounds for many generations, she had lived in the capital for most of her life. Over the centuries, her family had turned toward trade to survive. This helped justify their bi-annual pilgrimage to the sacred grounds, as many plants and minerals prized by the elite were endemic to the region.

Jana had married Vayn, a jeweler who didn’t believe in either faith, but whose ties with the royal family made him a member of the new faith by default, and granted him and his entourage protection from the hunt.

Jana had been content if not happy with her husband, pleased that he gave her enough freedom to go wherever she wanted when he himself was out on business travels or visiting family outside the capital.

She had been able to attend secret gatherings of true believers, and when her husband needed more raw materials for his craft, she volunteered to supervise their purchase at the mines surrounding the sacred grounds. For years she had felt safe most of the time, only scared of being discovered when she practiced her faith.

She had not expected to be betrayed by her own spouse.

“To purify his soul from the taint of the heretic woman he took as his wife, Vayn will light the fire himself to prove his innocence to the gods,” one of the false priests announced to the crowd gathered for Jana’s execution. 

The false priest was wearing the heavy black and red robes of the religious order of the new faith, his hood drawn over his head to partially hide his face.

Jana had spotted a few of her brethren among the people, and half of her was relieved to have their moral support. The other half of her wished she could shout to them to run away, to return to the capital, to pack their belongings and move to some remote village where people’s beliefs didn’t matter. Or better yet, to use the stone circle to move to another planet, one that had not been forsaken by the Wraiths.

“With the sacrifice of this damned soul, we ask for the forgiveness of the true gods, who protect us from the monsters of the skies,” the false priest said as he handed a lit torch to Vayn.

Jana stared at her husband, who was on the verge of tears and trembling from head to toes.

For days after catching her praying with her friends at the abandoned entrance of a mine, Vayn had begged her to renounce her faith. He had claimed not to care about her beliefs, and that he would still love her as long as she stopped going to the gatherings and didn’t go anywhere close to the sacred grounds again.

It had taken her husband the whole trip back to the capital to realize that Jana was steadfast in her faith, and would never compromise it just to appease him.

Of course Jana would have preferred not to die, but how could she renounce her faith when so many had died before her in their attempt to preserve the bond with their gods? When members of her own family had made so many sacrifices to be an example to the few remaining Wraith worshippers?

Her own eyes dry, Jana smiled sadly at her life partner, and sent a vain prayer for his unclaimed soul.

When Vayn froze in front of her, his teary eyes wide, she thought that his soul had been touched by her prayer. After a few seconds, however, she heard a sound her ears had never perceived before, but from the stories passed on by the people of her faith she could easily identify it.

Jana lifted her head to witness celestial vessels descending from the skies, the sight too glorious to pay much attention to the crowd dispersing in a cacophony of screams and shouts. Only the half dozen of true believers remained where they were, their arms raised upwards.

Jana was surprised to see Vayn climb the pyre, one of his sharp tools in hand.

“Come with me!” he told her after he cut off the ropes binding her.

Just as Jana was about to refuse his offer, they were both showered with a beam of celestial light, chosen by the gods themselves to serve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 also posted, and told from Ronon and Valdes (AR-11) POVs. Will return to the wraiths and their worshippers in Chapter 5.


	4. In the Belly of the Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AR-1 is looking for AR-11; Valdes isn’t impressed by the recent turns of events.

“Found them! They’re definitely in this solar system,” McKay announced after his tablet beeped, and activated the jumper’s main screen.

Ronon sighed involuntarily, but thankfully it was quiet enough that no one heard him. He didn’t need anyone knowing that he had been worried about the newbies.

A few days ago, AR-11 had been reported missing in action by AR-8, who was supposed to replace them on Latira.

Although Teyla had attempted to explain it to him, Ronon didn’t understand why Amara Ntanu was making Atlantis waste time on Latira, home planet to Kelore, one of the leaders of the Coalition of Planets.

One of Ntanu’s goals, as she had herself emphasized many times, was to get Atlantis a seat on the council of the Coalition. However, the council wasn’t seated in Latira. It had relocated after the trial Ronon and the rest of his team had been forced into almost a year ago.

Instead of looking for that gate address, Ntanu had decided to establish trade agreements with Latira, which Latirans had rejected at first. However, after weeks of hearing that woman talking about the importance of unity among the humans of Pegasus, even the people of Latira couldn’t help giving in. She was persuasive like that.

Latira had not been culled in centuries, but it had welcomed many refugees from planets culled by the wraiths, and more recently had provided asylum to survivors of planets destroyed by the replicators.

A few weeks back, Jennifer had told them all in a meeting that this rapid aggregation of people from different places was sure to cause disease outbreaks.

A few Atlantis reconnaissance teams had rotated shifts to deliver medical supplies to Latira, though AR-1 had been busy coming up with a plan to get Todd back on a hive ship so he could take back control of his fleet.

It was in the middle of a meeting with Todd that AR-1 had received an urgent signal all the way from Atlantis. McKay had used too many words to explain how that new thing worked, but then had used the stargate of a close-by planet to call Atlantis. Woolsey had informed them of the disappearance of Ntanu and the rest of her team, and asked to help locate them.

According to the information AR-8 had gathered, a pro-Genii military group of Latira had ambushed AR-11 and forced them to change planets using the stargate. Unfortunately, the DHD on the deserted planet they had transited to had been damaged, preventing them from looking up the next gate address.

To everyone’s surprise, Todd had offered to help them look for their lost comrades, though McKay had suspected that the wraith simply wanted to know how to intercept subspace signals sent from and to Atlantis.

Sheppard had proposed to use Todd’s cruiser to move the puddle jumper faster via hyperspace so they could cover more corners of the galaxy, but with McKay’s detector staying in the shielded puddle jumper Todd himself couldn’t directly locate AR-11.

“This planet…right here,” McKay indicated as he zoomed in on the holographic map of the solar system.

“Huh,” McKay grunted as he fiddled with the screen and then his tablet.

“What, Rodney?” Sheppard asked as he uncloaked the puddle jumper and piloted it toward the designated planet. “Be quick before I update Todd on the situation.”

“The planet from where AR-11 transmitters are broadcasting is the same one where you and Todd were kept prisoners by Kolya,” McKay informed the group.

“So, there are definitely Genii involved,” Ronon concluded as he checked on his magnum.

For now it was better to set it on the stunning function, but he wouldn’t mind gunning down one or two of those Genii if the opportunity presented itself.

“Uh oh,” McKay said again, the alarm in his voice making Ronon look up, only to see the massive hull of a hive ship outside the window. It was hovering above the planet where AR-11 was supposed to be.

It wasn’t close enough for the wraiths onboard to see them even uncloaked, but the cruiser right next to them was definitely big enough to appear on their radar.

Another beep resonated from the controls, and John patched Todd in.

“Sheppard!” the wraith simply said, visibly upset.

“We just saw it too!” John replied, before frowning. “Hey, you’re the one who brought us here, who’s to say it’s not one of your backhanded plans?”

“We need to return in hyperspace before they fire at us,” Todd replied without acknowledging Sheppard’s suspicions.

“We can’t leave,” McKay said with a deep sigh, pointing at a corner of the screen tracking the AR-11 signals.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Sheppard grumbled, hitting the heel of his palm on his forehead.

“What is it?” Teyla asked, sitting behind Rodney’s big head and thus unable to see what he was pointing at.

The transmitter signals were moving toward the hive ship. AR-11 had been culled.

 

* * *

 

“Great, just great,” Enrique mumbled as he stared at what could only be the hangar bay of a hive ship. He’d read that wraith cruisers could also transport darts, but this place looked way too big to be part of a cruiser.

After being kidnapped by some crazy trigger-happy Latirans just two days ago and sequestered in the slummiest alien jail Rick had ever been to – ignoring the fact that it was his first and only alien jail – the bioengineer hadn’t thought that things could get any worse.

They had been scheduled for a friendly torture session by some Genii dude, but Major Harrison had refused to listen to Amara’s suggestion to negotiate their freedom peacefully (did she realize that these people meant them bodily harm?) and broken them out of their prison, killing a guard with his bare hands in the process (Amara’s subsequent lecture about killing people had been annoying enough to distract Rick from his shock at seeing someone being murdered right next to him.)

Since their weapons had been confiscated – not that Rick was attached to his sidearm, he’d barely passed the test that allowed him to wear it – they had grabbed the archaic guns the Latirans had threatened them with. Those ended up packing a punch, and they had used them on their way to the stargate (how Harrison knew which way to go was anybody’s guess) to defend themselves from the psychopaths who tried to stop them.

But just when the stargate had been close enough that Enrique could tell that the DHD was intact, the event horizon had burst from the circle. Someone had activated the stargate from the other side.

Or rather, from above, as a few seconds later darts had rained down on them.

On the one hand, getting beamed up had saved them from being surrounded by their enemies. On the other hand, landing on a wraith hive ship had decreased their survival rate significantly. They could’ve survived that torture session by the Genii. Not easily, but surely.

Enrique struggled against the crowd of panicked humans being shoved around by some masked wraith soldiers around him to find a hiding spot around the hangar (apparently this hive ship was on a big grocery haul, because there’s no way all these people came from the planet they had been kept prisoners).

He found a disgustingly slimy hole in a wall, and ducked inside it without being noticed by the wraiths pushing humans around as if they were cattle ready for the slaughterhouse.

Once isolated, he checked his life signs detector. Rick was still amazed that he naturally had the ATA gene; his teammates didn’t, and only Amara’s transfection of the gene had been successful.

There were hundreds of dots just in this corner of the ship. Fortunately, thanks to their subcutaneous transmitters, he could tell which dots represented him and his teammates.

And of course, even though one of these dots was moving close to his, the other two were moving outside the range of the detector, blinking out of the screen along with the majority of the other culled humans.

“Valdes,” Park called in a loud whisper, bear crawling toward him. “Where are the others?” She asked when she saw the life detector.

“Out of range,” he replied just as quietly, looking left, right and above to make sure no one had eyes on them.

“Damn it,” the airwoman cursed a bit too loud in Rick’s opinion, but the hangar was already emptying out.

“I have a couple hive ship schematics here, but no two ships are configured the same way,” the bioengineer informed as he changed the setting of his screen.

Seriously, Ancient tech working with neural interfaces was the business. Think about what you want to do with the gadget, and if it’s in the program, the machine gets it done. Simple as that.

“Both of these maps have the storage facilities deeper in the hives, and we’re like at the edge,” he said, peering around one more time.

He had been taught how to hijack hive ship doors, but there were almost a dozen of lives on the other side of the only door he could see, and those were definitely wraith guards.

“Hey, don’t say ‘storage facilities’ as if human lives were commodities,” the lieutenant reprimanded.

“To the Wraiths, we are,” Rick reminded her with a shrug.

“We need to get past this door,” Park proposed, naturally. “We can’t stay here forever.”

“There are ten dots beyond this door, probably wraith soldiers armed to the teeth,” Rick argued, shoving the detector under her nose so she could see for herself.

“Just ten,” Park declared.

Just?

“You open the door, I take care of the wraiths,” the South Korean decided, standing from her crouched position and shuffling toward the door, her pilfered Genii guns pointing left and right as she approached it.

Enrique took out his pocketknife and sliced through the membrane protecting the circuitry of the door mechanism. He tuned out the disgusting aspect of the activity, which was easy, it was like dissecting frogs in high school, or lampreys in college.

Lieutenant Park got on one knee on the other end of the door, and as soon as it opened she fired three times, rolled passed the open door to avoid a gun beam and fired at the enemy some more. By the time Rick muster the courage to grab one of the fallen wraiths’ spear guns and join the fight, all ten of them were dead.

“Do you even know how to use that,” the military woman asked him with no inflection in her tone.

Rick glared at her, even though they both knew that he actually didn’t. He kept the weapon anyway, as he figured it could be used like a club if push came to shove.

“Don’t jinx yourself, Valdes,” he mumbled before checking the life detector again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AR-1 and AR-11 will reunite soon, if not in the next chapter then in the one following, and the two will be posted together soon.
> 
> Comments/feedback always welcome!


	5. Alliance -4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Major Harrison and Dr. Ntanu air their grievances from their wraith prison before meeting a wraith interested in the gene therapy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is wondering, titles with "Alliance -#" are the ones introducing main characters, AR-1 excluded. It's also a way for me to stay on track for the plot.

“At the risk of sounding immature,” Ntanu started after Chris threw his knife at the console commanding the door of their prison. The blade sunk into it, but nothing happened.

“We would have been in a much better situation had you listened to my suggestion back in the _other_ prison,” the diplomat finished when he turned toward her. 

She wasn’t even looking at him. No, she was jotting down God knew what in one of her tiny notepads – she had at least three of those, color-coded and all.

“At the time, being subjected to _torture_ didn’t sound like a better situation,” Harrison pointed out as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Ntanu was seated on the floor cross-legged, looking unbelievably serene.

“Torture is better than being fed upon by wraiths,” she commented as she slipped her pen and notepad into a pocket. “And they wouldn’t have taken us aside if they didn’t want to interrogate us before killing us, so torture is probably still an option here.” 

“What did you expect me to do?” Chris replied, louder than he had intended. “Wait for you to ‘negotiate’ our release? They weren’t going to just let us go after all the pain they took to get us!” 

“We don’t know that,” Ntanu said as she carefully unfolded her legs before standing up. “They wanted something from us, granted, and thought that violence was the best way to get it. All I had to do was convince them that we could come to an arrangement peacefully.”

“I know that you’ve brokered some interesting diplomatic deals before,” Chris admitted, “but that was on Earth, specifically in Africa, and we’re far from there. The Genii and their associates are known for resorting to violence even when offered peaceful alternatives.”

“Are you purposefully ignoring the fact that the current leader of the Genii is an ally of Atlantis?” Ntanu countered with a frown. “Those men were most likely from a small faction who doesn’t represent the average Genii.” 

“I didn’t care about what ‘the average Genii’ thought of Atlantis, I was trying to get my team out of harm’s way!” Chris reminded her, throwing his hands up in the air.

It was impossible to make that woman see reason even if it waved at her two inches from her face. She only wanted to do things her way, which meant a lot of talking and nothing concrete done.

“And how do you plan on getting us ‘out of harm’s way’ without weapons in a wraith spaceship?” the diplomat questioned with a raised brow and a head tilt toward his knife planted in the door console. That had been Harrison’s last weapon, his pilfered Genii guns having been confiscated before they were thrown into the cell.

Harrison glared at his teammate, which was the only thing he could do in their current situation.

He would never admit it, but getting tortured by the Genii would’ve definitely been a better option, though he’d had his doubts at the time the team was at the mercy of the Genii and Latiran rebels. He and Park would’ve endured the torture just fine, but he had been worried about the civilians in his team. 

Ntanu and Valdes could’ve died in that Genii cell, especially if the rebels had decided that they didn’t need to keep all of them alive to carry out their plans. 

Harrison had already felt guilty for not preventing their abduction from Latira, and had not been ready to lose any of his teammates to some renegade soldiers with some backward world war technology.

He had recognized the planet of the Genii jail from its three moons, as Colonel Sheppard had described them in his report of his imprisonment there. Dr. McKay’s report had provided the gate address of the planet, and Harrison had recognized the first three chevrons that one of the rebels had punched in – what a bunch of amateurs, those Latirans, not even blindfolding their captives.

The plan had been simple: neutralize their jailer; reclaim their weapons or acquire some from the compound; escape the compound and retreat to the stargate; get to an intermediary deserted planet then get to one of the member planets of the Coalition, where Ntanu could negotiate their safe return to Atlantis. 

Going straight back to Latira would be a mistake, as clearly some of its people were hostiles.

“Sorry,” Ntanu said with a sigh and a slow shake of her head, bringing him back from his musing. “I know you meant well, and none of us foresaw getting culled by wraiths. I just really need you to let me do my job before you pull the military leader card on me. I am the Chief Diplomatic Officer of Atlantis. You don’t outrank me, and my methods are just as valid as yours.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it,” Chris mumbled as he turned back toward the membranous barrier of their cell.

The space between the filamentous bars had looked wide enough to slip through them, but he had found out that they could change shape to prevent them to escape. He still had a little goo on his tactical vest from trying to force his way through the bars. 

Just as he was about to try to slip through the bars again, the external door to the prison was lifted open, revealing three wraiths: two soldiers and a high caste male.

The latter glanced at the knife embedded in the console of the jail door, looking between Chris and Ntanu as he pulled it away with one hand then pressed his other one into the console.

Harrison reflectively stepped back as the bars retracted into the sidewalls of the cell.

“Are you John Sheppard?” the leader asked him with his echoing voice. 

The major blinked hard, surprised by their jailor’s words.

Wow, AR-1’s fame wasn’t a joke. This whole damn galaxy knew about Atlantis. 

“Answer, human,” the male hissed, taking a threatening step forward. 

Chris was a big guy, six-four and one eighty pounds, so having someone loom over him was an unfamiliar and very unpleasant feeling.

“We’re his teammates, so it shouldn’t be long before he comes looking for us,” Ntanu lied so smoothly that for a heartbeat Harrison hoped that she actually had a way of knowing that.

The wraith narrowed his feline-like eyes at the diplomat before gesturing at the soldiers, who advanced to frame the cell. 

Without giving any further instructions, the high caste male turned on his heels and walked out of the room, and Ntanu made to follow him. 

“What the hell are you doing,” Chris said as he raised his arm to stop her, but then the soldier on his side not too gently nudged him forward.

The airman forgot to glare at the alien soldier when he saw the amused look on his teammate’s face. 

They wound around walls for five minutes before arriving in a room that could only be the equivalent of a wraith laboratory.

There were multiple shelves stacked upon columns sealed with thin, quasi-transparent membranes lit with an amber light.

Other columns were opaque, but whatever experiments were sealed inside were alive and moving, and Harrison quickly averted his eyes from them. 

The high caste male was standing in front of what looked like an altar from afar, but as the two humans got closer to it they could see that it was a lab bench, a big box placed at its center.

The wraith opened it, releasing cold vapors from it. The box deconstructed into stacked drawers, and the alien retrieved a vial from it.

“My queen has tasked me with reproducing the converting serum,” he said as he turned around to show them the vial.

“Converting serum,” Chris repeated as he squinted at the transparent liquid. 

He’d read even the most boringly scientific reports on the wraiths, and had never come across that term.

“Retrovirus or gene therapy?” Ntanu asked with a squint of her own, though Chris doubted she could identify the liquid just by looking at it. She wasn’t that type of doctor.

“To remove our need to feed on humans,” the wraith specified.

Well, technically, either one could do that, so that was not really a determining factor.

“Gene therapy,” Amara deliberated with a nod. “Our scientists have worked on it, yes.”

A spark of interest lit the wraith’s yellow eyes, making Harrison forget to scowl at the diplomat for over sharing information with the enemy.

The information was not truly a secret anyway, if the wraith had been looking for Colonel Sheppard to advance on his little project.

“I’ll gladly talk about sharing our findings,” the diplomat added as she crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “With a leader of this hive ship. I’m the chief diplomat of Atlantis, I demand to speak to a higher authority, not some mere scientist who can’t complete his task alone.”

Chris reflectively reached for his side arm - cursing when he was rudely reminded of its absence – just as the wraith launched himself toward his teammate, his pointy teeth fully displayed as he snarled in anger. 

But even when the alien was growling mere inches from her, Ntanu didn’t lose her cool. She stared up at the wraith, who was more than a whole foot taller, merely narrowing her eyes at his free hand as he raised it in threat.

“It was my understanding that your kind is strict about respecting the chain of command,” the diplomat calmly said. “So is ours. As you should be aware, we’re not the weak-minded humans you usually deal with. So either you kill us and forget about providing your hive a way to escape the famine you are sure to suffer in a few years, or you let me speak to your commander so I can properly negotiate our terms of agreement for sharing such valuable information with you.”

Chris held his breath as silence overtook the room – not really, there was a constant hum everywhere in this spaceship and he could also hear the things locked in those columns – and the wraith remained immobilized with his hand still up in the air.

After many more tensed seconds, the human-eating alien took a stepped back and growled at one of the soldiers stationed at the door. The masked wraith promptly turned around and walked out of the room.

“I will feed on you myself if your information proves inaccurate or useless,” the high caste male threatened before turning sharply around to put back the vial in the box.

“Feed on me? Haven’t you heard of the Hoffan drug?” Ntanu said with forced innocence, making the wraith spin around to stare at her with wide eyes.

“It’s another serum, I’m not sure what you would call it,” the diplomat added as the wraith glanced at Harrison. 

The airman had to give it to the diplomat, she knew how to bluff. Although the IOA had tasked the white coats in Area 51 to improve the anti-wraith drug, none of the active members of Atlantis had been injected with it. Of course, this wraith didn't know that.

“I think they just call it _poison _which is why he can't feed on us,” Chris even contributed to the lie, proud for sounding just as confident as his teammate.__

____

The wraith huffed before turning once again, closing the box forcefully before shoving it away.

____

A few awkward minutes passed before the door opened again, the soldier returning with another high caste male.

____

Harrison blinked to mask the widening of his eyes as he took in the leader.

____

That wispy goat patch, the long forehead, the well-combed hair – seriously, most of these wraiths didn’t look like they even knew what a comb was – and the triple claw tribal tattoo…

____

Kenny, Todd’s second! AR-11 knew the guy’s face well from watching a surveillance feed of the Daedelus during their 'wraith orientation' sessions.

__If Todd was their ally, so was Kenny by association, right?_ _

“See?” Ntanu whispered to him, her back turned from the newcomer. “Things turn out quite smoothly when we do things my way.”

____

Chris didn’t need to look at her to see that she had her eyebrows raised in smugness.

____

He himself barely managed not to roll his eyes as the wraith leader approached them with intent.

____

 

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6 posted along with this one, and it will somehow be related to the fic summary.
> 
> Kudos and feedback always appreciated!


	6. Reunion - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AR-1 reunites with Dr. Valdes and Lieutenant Park; Major Harrison and Dr. Ntanu face a wraith queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild, canon-typical violence. Also, in the attempt to have the same feel as a SGA episode I might have made this chapter a bit choppy.

“This way,” Rodney whispered as he pointed the hand holding the life detector toward an empty corridor.

It was going around the two green dots on the device screen, but it was the only way that would get them closer without confronting a whole regiment of wraith soldiers 

It had taken them forever to find a parking spot for the puddle jumper in the hive ship, and now they were going against the clock to find AR-11 before some observant guard in the hangar noticed the invisible thing blocking one of the doors.

Good news was, two members of AR-11 were mobile and similarly keeping away from wraith-filled spots, occasionally taking down some of them as they moved around. 

Bad news was, the other two dots hadn’t appeared on McKay’s screen yet, which meant that they were much deeper in the hive ship, out of range of the detector. 

Rodney raised a closed fist when he spotted five dots coming their way, but when he started walking backward Ronon passed him. 

“Hey!” the astrophysicist whisper-yelled at his teammate, who calmly unsheathed his gun and plastered himself against the only wall providing a hiding spot from the hallway. 

“What the hell are you guys doing?” McKay asked in a normal volume when Teyla and Sheppard took position directly in front of him, the first standing and the other on one knee, both looking in the sight of their P-90. 

“There are only five of them,” Todd said behind him, as if Rodney didn’t already know.

The wraith had not moved to join the shooting party, and for good reason: he didn’t have a gun. 

When Todd had claimed that he knew this hiveship and could negotiate the release of AR-11 without too much bloodshed from either side, Sheppard had demanded that he joined their rescue group unarmed. 

Rodney had just the time to sigh and get a few meters behind Ronon before the familiar sound of bullets firing at wraith armor resonated in the hall. Ronon moved from his spot and fired his magnum as well.

After the noise died down, McKay checked the life detectors, and lifted a thumb up when his teammates looked back at him. No unfriendly dot was coming alarmingly close to them, though quite a few left the range of the detector going toward the same direction. 

“Saw some odd movement,” he informed the team as they progressed toward the corner where the two AR-11 dots had remained immobile, “but not going our way nor toward the puddle jumper.”

“Huh,” John said as he fell back to look at the screen, then he looked at Todd over his shoulder. “Know anything about that?”

Todd looked back silently unimpressed.

“Infiltrating the hive mind would make him vulnerable to detection,” Teyla helpfully provided. 

Even McKay knew that, so it was a bit odd for Sheppard to ask that question. 

Maybe he just questioned Todd on principle, since the wraith never gave any heads up to confrontations he could forsee.

“They know we’re here, looks like,” Sheppard said, pulling McKay from his reflection.

Yep, the green dots of AR-11 were moving fast towards theirs.

“Major Harrison?” the Korean lieutenant called as they rounded the corner.

What was her name again? Rodney only remembered the civilians of the team, Ntanu and Valdes. There were too many newbies in Atlantis, since the close call in the battle against the Super Hive had made more than half of the original personnel request a vacation.

“Hey, it’s us,” Sheppard said, and after looking disappointed at not seeing her CO, the military woman saluted Sheppard.

“Thank God,” Valdes exclaimed as he visibly sighed in relief. “Our chances of survival have increased by a lot, for sure…Especially if he’s here,” he added with a hesitating nod toward Todd. 

“We came as soon as he could,” John said. “What in the world happened, Park?” 

“We were taken to three different planets via stargate before landing on the one where they kept us captive” Park – so that was her last name - recounted. “Major Harrison suspected it was the same compound where you were imprisoned by Kolya, Colonel. Is that how you found us?”

“Actually it was just luck, but yeah that’s the same planet,” Sheppard replied.

“The Latirans said that some Genii wanted to interrogate us, and from the sounds of it torture was in the plans,” the airwoman resumed. “Dr. Ntanu wanted to negotiate our release, but Major Harrison assessed that the Latirans and therefore their Genii associates weren’t open to peaceful negotiation, so we managed to get out and find our way to the stargate.” 

“Getting some upgraded Genii guns in the process, I see,” John commented, and only then did Rodney see that the military member of AR-11 wasn’t holding a P-90 but a Genii gun the engineer had never seen before: it looked like the semi-automatic guns the Genii used, but with a bigger, triple barrel like their shotguns. It looked heavy, but Park was carrying two of them. Had the Genii found a new metal to lighten their firearms? 

“Not as accurate as a P-90, but it does the job,” Park said with a shrug.

The ear-piercing wraith alarm resonated in the hall, and sounded to come from everywhere.

“How much you wanna bet that the problem comes from that place all the soldiers were converging to?” Sheppard said as he patted his vest pockets. “Everyone gather your C-4!”

“Whatever are we going to use C-4 for?” Valdes, like a good newbie, asked. 

“So we can threaten to blow up their ship if they don’t let us go, obviously,” Rodney told him as he planted one charge in a hidden corner himself.

 

* * *

 

 

“My master charged me to bring you these two humans,” the wraith scientist said after bowing to the queen. “They’re from Atlantis.” 

 _No, asshole,_ Christ thought while on his knees, _your master told you to wait until he could try, one more time, to contact a ‘trusted source’ who had reliable information on the gene therapy._

Meaning, Kenny didn’t know that Todd - what was Kenny even doing in a different hive ship, serving a real queen? – had unsuccessfully tried the gene therapy. The hive he was trying to reach had crashed a year ago. 

But as soon as Kenny had left the wraith lab to check on his communication device, the scientist had dragged Harrison and Ntanu to the guarded throne room, and when the diplomat had tried to buy them time by saying that she preferred waiting for the leader, the wraith scientist had wittily replied that the queen was the highest leader in the hive. 

That queen had glossy brown hair – she could audition for a Schwarzkopf commercial – and her eyes looked more green than yellow. 

You wouldn’t catch Harrison calling a wraith attractive, but the female alien looked much easier on the eyes than her male counterparts.

She even had nail polish, dark red. Hopefully it was regular nail polish and not blood from her human victims or something similarly sinister. 

“Is it true, you’re from Atlantis?” the queen asked as she slowly looked at Chris and Amara in turn before settling her intimidating gaze on him. 

Ntanu, who was supposed to be the talker in their pair, didn’t seem mad that the queen wasn’t addressing her instead. 

“I’m not really _from_ Atlantis, no,” the airman replied, confident in his defiance. 

During their special wraith training, Teyla and Colonel Sheppard had told them that wraith queens could not, contrary to popular beliefs, read human minds. They could physically “suggest” the bodies of their preys to move a certain way from a few feet away, and their senses were as accurate as a lie detector, but their telepathic powers only served them against other wraiths or wraithkins like Teyla. 

Therefore, the best way not to give away information to a queen was to direct thoughts away from the questions asked, or to lie very well.

Harrison focused his thoughts on the fact that he was from Detroit, Michigan, USA. He definitely wasn’t born in Atlantis, so he was not from there. 

The queen groaned in anger, and when she extended her arm toward him Harrison stumbled forward, half standing before landing right back down a few inches from the queen. 

Just as she was about to grab him, however, the two guards that had escorted them from the wraith lab turned against the queen’s guards, violently but quickly disposing of them. 

“What is the meaning of this?” the queen demanded loudly as she took back her extended arm to press her hand against a bump on the armrest of her high chair. 

Whatever she did rang an alarm - at least that’s what Chris thought the shrilling sound that broke out was.

A commotion was heard from beyond the door, but no one entered the throne room. The queen stood from her seat of power, but just as Harrison was getting out of her way, she whipped her hand across his temple. 

The airman lost consciousness before he could finish thinking _damn it_.

 

* * *

 

 

“What have you done, you wretch?” the queen shrieked at the scientist, who was kneeling in supplication.

The two guards were pointing their weapons at him, which was odd because it had looked to Amara like they were loyal to the scientist. 

But wasn’t the queen’s telepathic abilities superior to male wraiths? Maybe she had turned them against their own master.

“Forgive me my queen,” the male said, his echoing voice shaking, which was quite a pleasant sound to Amara’s ears. 

What would be even more pleasant to hear was Major Harrison’s heartbeat and breath. The queen had knocked him out cold with a single backhanded slap. 

After a few moments of hearing the queen growl lowly as she cocked her head sideway while looking at one of the guards, Ntanu realized that the female wraith was probably gathering information from their telepathic link. She was distracted.

The scientist seemed to realize it too, as he surged up on his feet and brought both hands around the queen’s throat. 

The piercing sound of distress that the queen made was unexpectedly left unanswered, the door out of the room remaining closed and the two guards not only letting the high caste male attack the queen but returning to their post at the door.

Since no one was paying her any mind, Amara quickly crawled toward Chris on her hands and knees. As she checked for her teammate’s pulse – stable, thank goodness - Amara reflected with shock that she was witnessing a coup d'état from a very uncomfortable front row. There was a confusing circle of betrayal going on, but her panicked mind couldn’t piece everything together.

The major’s breathing seemed normal as well – it certainly was slower than her own - and other than a bruise blooming on his temple he looked alright.

A pained shout made Amara look back at the two wraiths throttling each other.

The scientist was back on his knee, shaking furiously in what seemed like an attempt at standing up, but the queen slapped him hard enough that for a second the diplomat thought that she had broken the scientist’s neck.

But when the queen ripped his leather jacket with one hand and lifted her other in the air, a knife coming out of nowhere appeared on the scientist’s hand, and he slashed the blade on the queen’s arm. 

Just then the door opened, and a wraith soldier was thrown into the room, falling down hard and not standing back up. Behind him, Todd’s second stepped inside the room, looking around before zeroing in on the fight.

He pulled the scientist away from the queen, who took several steps back, bleeding from an arm and breathing loudly and fast.

“How dare you lay a hand on the queen?” Kenny – seriously, Colonel Sheppard had poor naming skills - yelled, shaking the shoulders of the scientist so hard that he dropped the knife.

It was Major Harrison’s knife, the one he had thrown into the door console of their jail cell earlier.

“She’s not my queen!” the scientist yelled back, trying vainly to get away from the male. “She’s not yours either. Let me kill her! I’ll kill her and we’ll return to the service of the Primary.”

Ah, there was the reason behind the mutiny.

For a few seconds Kenny just glared at the scientist, then with a quick look sent the two guards away, seemingly ignoring the two conspicuous humans on the floor next to the throne.

That was fine by Amara, whose body had started to shake in fear, and whose feet probably couldn’t get her anywhere far enough even if she decided to abandon her teammate and run for her life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback appreciated!


End file.
